Kristy Curry Moves On, Can Bama Beat Michigan & Ty Simpson Report - Thursday, March, 26, 2026

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This is the Joe Gather Show on Famicentral.com.

Good morning, Tuscaloosa.

Good morning, Tuscaloosa Internet World.

West Alabama, how we do it today on a Thursday?

It's the Joe Gather Show on Famicentral.com.

Hope you and yours are doing well.

We are in Chicago getting ready for Alabama's sweet 16 matchup.

I guess the Michigan Wolverine,

so I can't wait to talk about that with you guys today,

and with Theo Fernandez.

You can follow Theo Fernandez at Theo Fernandez,

double underscore your watching the show

on the Bama Central YouTube channel, Facebook page.

Listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Spotify,

wherever you get your podcasts.

You can find the Joe Gather Show on Bama Central.

I want to say, before we get going,

big thanks to Henry Scholar, and to Theo, of course,

we're holding down the fort yesterday.

This guy's had a great conversation,

talking about Thai Simpson Pro Day,

getting a little Michigan action involved as well.

So we've got a circle back on the Michigan discussion today.

We're going to talk about Kristi Curry,

moving on for the South Florida job today.

We will get a report on Thai Simpson's Pro Day.

If he supplanted Fernando Mendoza yesterday,

or if it's all just a CAA industry work,

trying to get Thai Simpson drafted early

to make all the agents and sponsors happy.

So that's what we're going to do today.

We have a lot of fun.

We go over to the United Center here in just a little bit

to hear from Alabama basketball players

and from Michigan basketball players,

cannot wait to hear how the guys travel up here,

their perspectives on the week.

But it's going to be a lot of fun.

We cannot wait to do it with you guys.

Make sure you call Derek Daniel

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Theo, thank you so much for your time yesterday.

And you're helping your work.

How we doing, sir?

Doing great.

I was good to take lead on the show.

Love having Henry on.

It was just a fun conversation.

Got heated about Thai Simpson.

And then got to watch Thai Simpson.

And I know we're going to talk about pro day later.

But I will say they did not set a sub for success at this thing.

They put us, I mean, we were buried in the corner.

Like we were so far away.

We couldn't hear any of the 40 times.

So it was just running around trying to make something out of nothing.

But it was still a good opportunity.

A little emotional seeing Thai Bernard Boston,

like all these guys, like just last time.

You know, they were cracking jokes with us.

They were clearly in such a different mood.

So it's weird after going through seasons of, you know,

with Thai one season.

The other guy has multiple seasons of covering them.

And now here it is.

This is it.

Yeah.

The shackles are off of them.

The Alabama media shackles are off of them.

So they tend to be like,

you know, they tend to have a little more fun at the pro day scrum that

then they usually do when they're wearing the Alabama uniform.

But you just said, I mean, they honestly, unfortunately,

they hardly ever set you up for success at pro day.

Always keeping the media off to the side away from the times.

That's why if you saw, if I'm sorry to all of my colleagues,

but if you saw any of my colleagues tweeting,

454, 461, 478, they're wrong.

I'm sorry that I respect them.

I know they worked hard, but they're wrong.

You're just standing too far away to take any times with it

with any grain of seriousness.

So really it's just about the atmosphere and seeing the guys one more time.

And if you want to see those videos, those YouTube videos,

you can see the scrums, the interviews that Henry and Theo did.

And the rest of our media colleagues

with Ty Simpson, with Deontay Lawson, Jeremy Bernard,

right there in the facilities all in the Bamba Central YouTube channel.

I want to hear about how Ty threw here in just a little bit.

But we should probably start with the news that happened a couple of days ago,

which was Christy Curry leaving the Alabama job

to take this out for the job.

I know that we don't do a whole lot of women's basketball coverage on the program.

We will highlight it here and there when they have something worth highlighting.

But quite frankly, I don't want to come off as a women's basketball expert.

I believe that Christy Curry just wanted a change of scenery

and wanted a little bit more investment from her set of university.

And so South Florida was offering that, offering her a front start.

I think she had a really good career here in Tuscaloosa,

what, 13 years here in town, took Alabama women's basketball back to the NCAA tournament

in a place they had not been in several years since she had come.

So I think that Christy Curry's tenure was successful.

I was not sad to see her, you know, I was not sitting here crying to see her move on.

But I think that we should congratulate her and say great job on taking another job.

I just think it's very interesting to you or note where the South Florida,

their investment for women's basketball is at a greater level than Alabama's

and thus makes the job at South Florida probably a little more attractive than the Alabama job.

That combined with the fresh start element really, really seemed enticing to Christy Curry.

I cannot blame her at all for going to take that job, right?

I mean, you are just in a position where the amount of money that Alabama is spending

in the SEC is never going to be competitive.

And I understand, I mean, USF, they spend the most money of an expo in the American.

And you get to go there.

And first of all, you're in a conference where you get enough to what are you turning in?

Like, seven seed, 18, 9 seed to Alabama.

You've had a couple of outliers past couple of years, four and five.

But you're right in that middle scene line, seed line at USF.

So you're producing teams of the same caliber.

You're in a pretty school that's pretty easy to get people to be like, yeah,

I can go spend four years here and probably have a good time.

She's having a good life herself there.

Her salary is about the same.

It makes sense.

It makes absolute sense for Curry.

And I, your reaction, I think, is the perfect one.

It should be not apathetic, but like there's no real positives or negatives.

It's kind of just whatever.

Right.

I mean, she did what she was hired to do, which was revive the Alabama Women's Basketball program.

They had not been to the NCAA tournament since 1999 before she arrived in Tuscaloosa.

She has taken Alabama to, I believe, five.

Is that only count my math once again?

21, 3, 4, 5?

Yeah, five NCAA tournaments with four of them coming in a row.

Consequently, 2021 and then 23 all the way to this year.

So four in a row for that program.

And she won four NCAA tournament games.

Obviously never got past the second round.

But one four NCAA tournament games for a program that had such a proud foundation

and a long time of not being in the tournament, I think she did pretty well in that role,

considering the investment that the Crimson, that the athletic program made and makes currently

makes in the women's furrow program.

And then compare it to the rest of the SEC.

You find Alabama at the bottom end on investment.

And I would say she did a pretty good job here considering the resources and the competition.

She was stacked up against.

But I think Greg Burns in a very interesting spot here because people are throwing out Joni Taylor,

wanting the Texas A&M coach to come to Tuscaloosa, former Alabama player, played here,

and has gone into the coaching world, wanting Joni Taylor.

You're seeing a big mixed reaction.

Joni Taylor probably being the highest name or the highest marquee name.

And then you're seeing a lot of ancillary small names.

You're seeing Rick Austin, Ace Austin's high school coach.

And I think for her father, if I'm putting two and two together, I don't think that's going to happen.

You're seeing Madonna Thompson, the Charlton State kick coach, being thrown out there in a lot of these comment sections,

while that might be a good fit.

I don't think that's going to happen.

Well, there's got to be some, I don't know Madonna, other than her winning.

One at Charlton State, very, very high clip.

But there's got to be some reason why, despite her winning, she hasn't wanted to move into higher level college basketball.

I don't know that, you'd have to ask her.

But I think that Greg Burns is probably going to surprise the general Alabama fan base with his higher.

And I think you're trying to hire someone that's not going to cost you much,

but still keep the program about where it is right now, which is just relevant enough to make the NCAA tournament,

but probably not good enough, not investing at a high enough level to be competing with the South Carolina's,

with the LSU's, with the Ucons, at the very, very top of college basketball.

Yeah, Taylor is frankly not going to happen.

There's just no way.

You're taking an objectively much worse job by coming here out of A&F, right?

She's great.

I interviewed her at SEC Woman's Media Day and she talked about the program.

And there's a great clip of her talking about how cool it was to beat Auburn, even when she was with A&F.

But there's some nice stuff on it.

It's not going to happen.

I think from talking with, from talking with Gary Harris, who really has, you know, obviously that's a good guy.

Yeah, on the pulse here, right, with everything.

Madonna Thompson seems like home run higher for this program.

It's your point guard from your one and only final 14.

You've got the BAM connection.

You've got the 750 career wins.

And you've got to coach that'll come and do it for a lot less than just about anybody else.

She wants that job.

And I've seen no reason to believe that she couldn't A, recruit the best players in Alabama to come play here.

And B, coach a very good basketball team.

You win at that clip at the lower level, you're good to move up.

I mean, we see so many coaches make the jumps so fast.

I just think this is a home run high.

This would be a home run higher culturally.

I think it would be for the program.

And I think it would be financially because now all of a sudden.

Well, Christie Curry was getting paid 700,000.

You think Madonna Thompson do it for 250.

Right.

I can see him so easy to well now.

We have all this money to actually spend on these players.

Or divert to others for either way, you're getting money that helps the state of Alabama athletics.

It's a really good coach.

Not pretty good.

A proven winner.

Higher Madonna Thompson for the job.

That's all I would say.

I think that'd be where I would suggest Greg Burns to look.

There's just got to be.

There's just got to be a reason why Madonna Thompson has really wanted to or hasn't been approached to hasn't given the opportunity to move to a higher level.

That I'm not privy to you.

I don't know.

But and then.

Well, I think it's going to be.

It would be.

Well, I think it would be a good choice.

I think the national perception would be.

Oh, you just hired the Juco coach that's still in a.

That's still it.

That's right there in your backyard.

Oh, what a cop out answer.

So I think it looks a little odd.

Optically.

But if you got past the optics and you've got to the nitty gritty of it, I think it probably would be in the right move.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

So let's go to our comment section real quick before we wrap this wrap this portion of the pro this portion of the discussion up.

First, Everd Osmer.

Can we have Hunter on have a great show.

Everd, I think there's a strong chance we can have Hunter on very soon.

Like maybe tomorrow.

We'll see if he's up for it.

We'll see if he's he's a wanted to talk some Alabama basketball before Alabama plays Michigan.

Next up, we got Keith Connell said, Hey, guys, we're all tied.

Good morning, Keith.

I hope you're doing well, sir.

And he says I missed it guys is curry announcing her retirement or something.

Unfortunately, Keith, two days ago, two, two, two nights ago, Christie Curry accepted the job to go to take the South Florida Bulls coaching.

She's leaving Alabama to take the South Florida job.

The other aspect of this Theo is you just look at the competition in the American conference for women's basketball versus the SEC.

And if she, you know, from Christie Curry's perspective, if I'm going to get paid about the same as I would at Alabama and have a little more to about the same NIL kind of investment at South Florida.

I can take that money and feed and field a competent team that might actually compete for the American conference title.

Whereas the money in the SEC that she was taking, it wasn't even getting her scratch on this purpose on Texas, on LSU, on the South Carolina.

So like, I think it's a win-win for her.

It gives the Alabama basketball program, women's basketball program a chance to reset themselves because look, you had such a long time of no tournaments.

She's got you to the tournament.

Well, you're not consistently in the tournament, well, you can't get past the second round.

So like, you've raised the bar of where you were and now she's moving on.

You get a chance to get somebody in here to re-raise the bar. It's a win-win for everybody.

Yeah, I just think, I think the one other thing I would want to tell people is that, yes, the possibility very, very, very much exists that Alabama's basketball just goes to being a bottom feeder SEC program.

In a day, Christy Curry, for all of the criticism, that was thrown at her by certain circles of, you know, social media, Alabama fans, whatever.

She was a coach that raised the standard of the program.

She has had success at Texas Tech. She took Purdue to a final, like, she's had a long successful career.

And you look at the end of the day, this is going to be a program that is maybe at best 14th in spending in the SEC.

Right. That's going to be bringing in a new coach who has not coached at this level, no matter who it is.

There is a very strong chance that this thing just, you know, crashes that.

So be ready for that possibility, but also be ready for, well, if you nail this higher and you have the right culture fit and whatever, like, it could raise the ceiling.

I don't know, but just know that, you know, this could be, we could have just watched Alabama play in the NCAA tournament for the last time in a while.

You could have for sure. I think, I think what Greg does with his higher will tell us a lot.

Does he invest heavily? Does he got try to go money ball? Does he just try to just quite frankly get an afterschool babysitter?

They into the into the program. And I think what he does with the higher will give us a good idea of what the athletic department wants the program to be going forward.

All right. So let's get this so continue to show and get going here.

We'll continue on the basketball front here with Theo Fernandez, follow him at Theo Fernandez, double under school.

We are in Chicago right now. We're about to head to the United Center.

Alabama is up first. Alabama basketball gets about 15 minutes of practice.

And then we get to hear from all the players and hear from all the coaches and get ready for tomorrow nights, sweet 16 matchup against the Michigan Wolverines.

Now, Theo, I've been watching Michigan decently this week, putting them on different games.

I was watching Michigan and Purdue's regular season game this morning while I was enjoying practice.

So checking out, checking out Fred Fletcher lawyer and Braden Smith right there at home in their home game against Michigan.

Now they ended up beating Michigan in the big 10 title game.

But let's just get right into it. I was listening to you in Henry yesterday.

And Henry was talking about advanced analytics, 17 point favorite.

Theo was going on and on. You were going on and on about a very small chance.

Don't want to say zero, but very small chance for Alabama to win.

Just add out to me, man. Where are you feeling about this?

You saw Alabama defy your take over the weekend.

Can they continue to keep this run going and win on Friday this Michigan?

This would be the most impressive win the team is pulled off since I started covering the team.

The three seasons now includes this completely would blow the sweet 16 win over North Carolina two years ago out of the water quite frankly.

This Michigan team and its ability to sprint up and down the court and play at the same pace as you want like watching the way that Mara plays.

And this guy's ability to yes, he's in for like kind of shorter spurts of basketball, right?

But when he's in, he's not slowing this team down.

He doesn't look out of position or anything because of how fast the team plays like.

I wonder if that will be maybe come to fruition a little bit against this Alabama team that's also running, but now I don't think so.

This Michigan team like you're not going to outrun them.

You're not. This is what they've done all year.

This is what they can do against anybody.

They can play anybody style of basketball in the excel.

You know, with what NATO does to teams with Michigan has almost an even stronger with will bear in file on this year.

Michigan hasn't even stronger a version to the non rim to this season than the Crimson Todd.

It was funny like I just look at continue to circle back to the well, the Baron.

Well, Baron killed just Alexander.

Like that is what we're looking at for this team because you're not going to have the options available to your teams already probably to be taken 60% of the shots from beyond the arc just about.

What can you do in the mid range? What can you give Alabama to have a little bit of a diverse offense in this game?

It is just there is such a kind of give it yesterday with Henry.

Like there's such a razor thin margin forever in this game for the Crimson Todd.

Yeah, you look at these.

The Michigan world reads and they are a very interesting.

It's very Florida as in a lot of ways because OK, really strong front court, not as super strong back court.

I know you could know and the Murray Bernat good players.

I heard you all talking yesterday.

Good players, not great.

And I agree with that.

I think that they're both fine players above average, almost even good.

But Kado.

Let's just start with Kado.

We'll start with Kado.

We'll just move right through the starting five and talk about what we think about each of the each of the starting five.

That sounds like when it does.

Kado looks to me like.

Like like a third string player for Alabama, a third string guard for Alabama.

Like you stack them up against the rest of the guards.

Are you playing them over the Baron or eight and all the way?

No, you're not.

Are you playing them over the trail?

I don't think you are either.

Are you playing them over?

Amari Allen?

I don't think you are either.

So what does Kado do for them?

I can't even dribble the ball up the floor, but he's not always through between the ball up the floor.

You got, you got, you got, you got Amari who are also doing that for them.

Elliott will take it like to me is good.

His biggest skill or his biggest addition to the team is fearlessness.

Like he, you can very clearly see that he has extreme confidence in himself.

I don't really love his shot making ability.

He can get to the lane and get into the lane pretty effectively.

But I don't really think he's an elite finisher at the rim.

So to me, good, pretty good dribbler, a pretty good passer, not a great finisher, not a great shooter,

but can make a shot and can finish at the rim if you give him, you know, open shots and open rim looks.

Sure, but I still, I think he's got a reckless to me.

I think he's a little bit, oh, I'm just, I just have no fear.

I'm going to take this shot.

As it gets swatted in my face, or if it misses badly, oh well, I'll take the next shot.

I'll still take the next shot.

And I might make the next shot.

But I just think he's an erratic kind of scorer is kind of how I feel about him.

But I do think that he's a good ball handler.

I do think he can get into the lane fairly well.

I just don't, there's nothing else really about him offensively that makes me think, oh, I'm scared to go against Elliott Kado.

I'm scared of what he can do for this game.

And you know, we start with the point yards.

Do you have any any disagreement of how I feel because I don't really think he's that dangerous.

But I do think he has a good ball handler and good for their team.

I think he has a brings a fearless attitude to their to their team.

He's just a good facilitator too.

I mean, it just rates up there 33.5.

He makes, he gets, he serves a role, right?

He isn't a role player very much for this team, but

and let's be honest, yes, just about any competent point guard could fill that role with what you have in the front court.

No, exactly.

Yes, that is kind of I think the gist of it.

Not that, you know, we could be saying this and then he goes out and he hits the shots and all the sun.

It's well, we were just focused on stopping these bigs and Ellie Kado will make us pay.

He's a good enough player to have that kind of effect on the game.

But at the end of the day, like with what LeBaron has done defensively lately and with the improved intensity,

I do agree that he will certainly not be the reason that I'm about to lose this game.

Right. I don't see him going out there and just, oh my gosh, Ellie Kado scored 25.

You know, we've been doing the who's going to set their new career highs.

And I guess we need to look up some career highs on the Michigan team in the next 24 hours.

But I don't care what the number is for it for Ellie Kado.

I would guess his career highs at 25, whatever, just without looking at it.

But I don't see him score 25 tomorrow.

I see him being a passer and I see him being a player that LeBaron could potentially take a couple of steals off of and go the other way.

And the next for them is Neymari Burnett.

Neymari, we all remember him here in Tuscaloosa.

And I think I said it the other day.

I don't really think he's that much different than how he was in Tuscaloosa right at a 40% right at a 40% 3 point cheer.

Average in eight and a half points, average in nearly three rebounds, about to assist.

So right at 39% 3 point cheer.

And he's essentially like their best 3 point shooter that shoots a lot of three points shots.

You've got Charlie May.

It was shooting 50% from three.

But Charlie May has only taken one three four on the year.

Neymari is 58 of 147.

So he's basically there to go to three point shooter.

But you know, compared to the Alabama roster is Neymari Burnett.

The fourth best shooter on the Alabama roster is either third best shooter on the Alabama roster.

Like to me, I'm taking the trail.

I'm taking Holloway.

I'm taking LeBaron over him.

And I'm putting him in the class with Bullbowen.

Maybe maybe above the Bullbowen class.

I'm putting him above the Bullbowen class, but kind of in the Amari Allen class.

Oh, good shooter.

You're okay.

I was in taking the three point shot, but shot looking for like for Alabama.

You want to get let's rebel a three point shot.

You want to make that part of your offense.

I think if the ball finds the Mario on the corner.

Okay, you're fine with him taking that shot.

It's not it's not a shot.

You're drawing up an adustee made wheel drops and shots for him.

But I'm thinking in a hypothetical world.

Would you be drawing up shots for Neymari Burnett?

And I'm thinking to myself, nah, I don't think I would.

Yeah, Adostee made does not live in hypotheticals.

And you will see shots drawn up for Burnett.

And let's also look at one of the other facts that.

When you have those guys inside against now, that I'm a team that looks very rough.

Rebounding despite a good weekend.

Sometimes you can afford a couple of misses knowing that we've got guys here to get us a couple of second chance opportunities.

That will be what that'll be one of the biggest things that determines the game is the offense rebound.

I mean, I'm back to Burnett like.

He will.

He will hit some three and I fully believe, you know, he's done it all year.

He is a shooter and he's not at the caliber of a little trail right.

So I don't think that's a controversial statement at all.

But he's made teams pay for lapses and positioning all year.

Yeah, the Mario Burnett season high this year.

31 against Penn State.

But how much of an outlier is that, Theo?

His next highest games are 15 against Auburn and 15 against Oregon.

So he just went absolutely berserk.

I guess, I guess, Penn State.

Let's see how many he made seven of 10 threes in that game.

He's got four threes against Oakland and four threes against Gonzaga in those two games that Michigan won.

Michigan's biggest thing here is their depth.

It's not that any like Yaxle, I think, is a top line A plus.

That is a real deal.

Mother bleeper who Alabama is going to have to deal with.

But other than that, like.

Is Mara Johnson an A plus to your player?

Is any Mara an A plus to your player?

I don't think so.

I think they are B plus type players.

And they just overwhelm you with their depth and and and the ability to.

Oh, do you want to double Yaxle?

Well, the ball can find somebody else and they can score.

I think the biggest thing that they present in this game is.

Just depth of scoring and depth of production.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's just about everything I've got on there.

What do you think about Yaxle?

I think that he is.

I think that he is one of the most unique players.

I've seen over the past few years.

Like he's a guy who stands out in so many ways.

Yeah.

First of all, is saying at UAB right last year.

When he had the opportunity to take the leap.

And just looking at what it did for him, you know.

You go to the tournament in 2024 with UAB.

You can go just about anywhere.

You stay another year on a much worse team, but still.

Just so much more polished all throughout the season.

First of all, I think that speaks to guys maybe not need to jump in the portal as fast as they can be because he does not do this.

I don't think without the development under Andy Kennedy last year.

He is just a game record.

And about every way for this Michigan team.

You guys see there were a lot of, you know, kind of I guess talk about.

Well, look at his numbers.

How is this guy in all American?

For guys who hadn't necessarily watched all the time.

He's so good man.

He just he disrupts games in so many ways.

I don't know what Alabama's playing for.

The Axles career high is.

She means this season season high is 29 against Maryland.

He's going 29 against Maryland, 27 against Michigan State, 27 and 26 against Michigan State in two different games.

25 against MTSU.

And then against St. Louis in their last game.

He had 25 points as well in the NCAA tournament going back just to close a loop.

It could go season high.

He scored 19 points twice against Wisconsin and Indiana.

And his most threes in a game is four for Elliott Kado.

He is four of eight against Villanova scoring 18 points this season.

So he isn't improved three point shooter.

But not going to fill it up and be an elite score with only a handful of times over 18 points this year.

Back to the Axles and to your point.

I think the Axles is the real ex-backer in this game because you don't really have a great body to defend him.

You're good.

I saw your note. You're good.

You don't really have a great body to defend him.

I heard you talking yesterday and you know, took my voice mail on it.

It's either bow bow or a Mario out.

And in both of y'all kind of said a Mario and I like that.

But even a Mario is not really a great match up for him.

Standing there six, nine, two, 40s, a little taller, a little thicker than a Mario.

But the problem is he's just as explosive as a Mario.

So he can get himself to the rim.

He's really light on his feet.

The Axles a player who is honestly in college basketball one of a kind.

You do see one, you know, you do see a type like him.

You know, pretty often you're in a year out.

But like there's not many of him.

Michigan has the only Yaxxel London board type in college basketball right now.

And so he can shoot right at what, 38, 36 percent, three point shooter.

He can get to the rim.

He can defend. He's an elite athlete.

I think Yaxxel is the real problem for this game.

Because look, you can stand in there at Amara.

He can run the court shore.

But I don't see him as really an elite athlete.

I don't see him as a real elite score.

Nice grip protector.

But for me, it's, it's Mara's Johnson and Yaxxel London board as the problem.

And really it's Yaxxel, his skill set being the biggest problem.

And so I'm not really sure how I would defend him in foulernate oats.

Well, Mara becomes a massive problem and has all year because of what Yaxxel has done.

Sure.

Like that is, that's kind of, that's kind of my biggest takeaway on this team.

Like, yeah, teams could add teams of game plan for guys at Mara's size for years, right?

Teams have neutralized a guy like Zach Edie before.

And Mara is obviously nowhere near the caliber of what Zach Edie was.

How do you stop this seven three men when you're also trying to stop just.

And insane freaking nature and.

Yaxxel in the way he plays the game.

Like he is just so unlike what teams have had the game plan for which.

That's kind of why like a Mario and I think needs.

To be the guy on Yaxxel.

Because I think that first of all, you know, you've got the athleticism.

You've got six nine versus six eight, right?

There's not much of it.

Yaxxel obviously bigger guy, but I feel like a Mari can with his athleticism make up for the size difference.

But the other big piece is what you need.

Anyone bigger than a Mari Allen.

To do more things, right?

You need them working in other positions.

You know, you need to somehow keep an eye on more as Johnson as well, right?

And Mara's not really.

Right. What does Nate do here?

Because you see these three four words.

And so the question for me, Theo, is will we see Nate throw out their.

Cherelle and Williamson and Bob Bowen or will it be Cherelle Williamson of Mari Allen?

Or will it be Cherelle Bob Bowen of Mari Allen?

And you say you three like I think that's most likely Cherelle Bob Bowen of Mari Allen.

But Cherelle on Mara, Bob Bowen on Mara's Johnson, which that's a matchup I hate.

I think Johnson will bully the absolute mess at a Bob Bowen.

And then you say, well, you're also lighter with your Mari Allen on Yaxxel in the boring matchup.

What would you do if you're Nate?

What three would you put on their three four words?

I think I'd basically do what you said there.

I mean, it's just it's bad options.

There's no good option. Now, first of all, I mean,

more as the three of them don't share the court all that much.

But they start together and then they kind of rotate.

Then it's just that I mean, when they're all on the court together,

it is going to be so difficult, man.

And you know that if obviously they are sharing the court now,

as no answer, though, they'll certainly share the court a lot longer.

And then they probably won't even need to play that late into the game at all.

I just see the combination of the three of them out there together is completely wrecking things for Alabama.

And I mean, Dusty may will expose every single possible angle that there is to kill this crimson tide team.

It was put really well.

One of the talent fastball Instagram pages.

Alabama Michigan has the potential to be the game of the year.

Or one of the worst blowouts in the tournament.

Like the ceiling is so high for this game.

If Alabama can just figure out how to hang with these bigs.

Or Michigan could end them really quickly.

I think that well, I think that I would do basically what you said.

But I do kind of.

I like the idea of a chorale Williamson parent.

Am I idiot to think that Williamson has gotten a little bit of momentum?

Got a little bit of confidence.

We could look like we could look like idiots for saying this in a day and a half, right?

And that is a very real possibility.

But no, I don't think you are.

I also think that what Williamson gives you on the offensive end with.

You know, driving one of those guys away from the paint.

Right.

Giving.

Give it.

Well, barren in the offense.

A punching chance at getting inside and doing something when you have one less body in there.

You need Williamson to space the floor.

You need him to look like he can physically compete with these guys inside.

And even if he is not the guy primarily on the court, like the stretches that he comes in.

And can you not look like you haven't played basketball before?

The no Williamson of SEC play, right?

That we saw for much of the season.

That guy is going to allow Michigan to go on a seven over on when he checks into the game.

The no Williamson we seen last week.

I'm not so sure.

Maybe it's just false confidence.

Maybe it's getting too excited after two games, you know.

Following the season that was very bad, right?

We don't remember that.

But I know I think that no Williamson needs to be a piece of Alabama's game plan.

Whether it's in 18 minutes, whether it's in seven minutes.

Whatever combination of how much he plays, how much he's on the court will be crucial.

We'll be covered all day today at the United Center.

You can follow us at balancecensual.com, hunter, disciple, all on word.

Katie Wyndham, underscore in myself at Joe Gayther, six.

We're heading over there and just a little bit.

One more thing, Theo, on basketball before I get your Tyson's and report.

And how the way did not make the strip yesterday with the program.

Now we were pretty much kind of pushed to one way last week.

And how they would be playing this weekend.

I still think that as a possibility.

I will remind you of the Nick Pringle flying himself out to the tournament site away from the team.

A couple of years ago, I still think it's a possibility that Aiden does fly up here today.

But I would put that possibility at about 10%, 5%.

So I don't think it's done quite yet.

But I think it's pretty close to being done.

And today is the day to basically determine and find out if he is going to fly up here.

There's still several hoops to go through.

We haven't heard if he has had his judiciary board, his student review disciplinary board hearing.

And then the next things are the judge having to amend the bond agreement to let him get out of state.

So there are still several hoops for him to jump through.

Could he jump through it today?

Could? Yes, he could.

Do I think that's likely I would say no.

So out of that, I'm probably going to have to get it done in the Holloway on Friday.

Yeah, did you hear the hear how does the voicemail about?

Yeah, I totally disagree.

You need all the shooting you can get.

Now defensively that might work out.

Yes, it weren't in my, but I think the only real way I can see an advantage is psychologically.

You know, the wounded animal, the, you know, backed up into a corner fights a little harder fights a little more desperate.

All is more attentive to detail.

So the team might take on the wounded animal mentality backs against the wall.

We got to be more detail oriented and play even hard.

I mean, I won't say that that's what we saw this past weekend, but we did see a really intense two game for the team.

Well, a game and a half, it took them a second to match Hofstra's, Hofstra's first big punch.

But once they did match Hofstra's first big punch, they were pretty intense and pretty locked in the rest of the weekend.

I don't know that it was because they didn't have a Holloway, but it wasn't encouraging sign.

So maybe they will be, you know, more intense right from the jump because they know they don't have Mr. 40% shooter sitting there to save them.

No, it's, you need the shooting man. That is such a big piece of it.

You can play all the psychological games. You can even make the argument of, well, this could get a guy accused of a let on the court more.

And you need everything one of those possessions. He's in a value with an offensive rebound or a late time that like, I just think any advantage that is gained by Holloway being off the court is just nullified by the fact that you need to, like I was looking at it.

25 3s against BYU.

Yeah, that's basically the, like that's basically what you're coming in needing to have a chance.

Right? Like you need to have a historic day. Yes, you do.

Like I don't think it's a stretch set if you win that game. You're probably breaking the record.

And doing that without any knowledge. It's a whole lot harder.

You know what he's done for this offense. It'll be awful.

Yeah, so we'll see if he can clear one of those hurdles today and travel.

But right now I would say pretty unlikely.

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All right. You were in the Hank Chris indoor facility yesterday. How did Ty Simpson look?

I don't have a few more minutes for I got a shower. What do you think? What did Ty Simpson?

I heard you yesterday say top top top five pick. What did you say 16 or higher?

Because that's the second.

You will not go any lower in the draft and pick 16 and nothing that you saw yesterday.

Move you off that opinion.

No, there was one legitimate overthrow.

I believe I think it was to Rico Scott. If you have a pressure, it was to Rico.

One legitimate overthrow and outside of that.

I mean, just about everything he threw hit receivers. Hey, and there was one.

One, I guess, maybe second overthrow to Bernard.

But I kind of felt like Bernard could have made a play on that ball.

Well, we're really tight needs to throw a more catchable ball because that's all Ryan Coleman Williams.

That ball was spiraling out of it. It was a terrible ball.

It might have hit him right in the hands. It might have been right over his shoulder right in the bread basket.

But the wobble on it was the terrible pass.

Hi, you need to really work on throwing a catchable because Ryan, you know, Ryan Williams might have dropped that ball.

But Ryan Coleman Williams doesn't drop the pass.

So it had to have been the quarterbacks fall.

Are you talking about the first shot for the second job?

Oh, I only saw one, but it'll go with that passes. Ryan Coleman Williams doesn't drop passes.

Yeah, and they were, you know, once Ryan Coleman Williams gets as QB1 this year, you know, that won't happen anymore.

Now it was then those where you just felt like a collective audible grown in the whole facility.

I'm both plays, man.

Like because he was in such a rhythm, man, there were fun catches guys were having such a great time.

Ryan drops the first one, right? He goes out, you know, tie.

Changes the order, right?

Of the throws and he goes to Ryan and he says something like, I want to get it back right now.

I forget exactly what he said to Ryan, but it's something on those lines and throws that same exact wrap and run holes in it.

And then, you know, it was right back to fun, fun night, tie sims and makes just throw after throw.

Bernard had a really nice sideline catch.

I don't know if you saw that clip.

Bernard looked to you the whole time, but obviously it's just the inner throughout running like it's hard to put too much stock into it.

Sure.

Ryan Ryan last catch of the day, just again, end zone.

I get it is unfortunate. There was a third that he bobbled earlier on like just in the hands and managed to haul it in my.

Oh, he's still getting used to the new nut name and number.

Once he gets used to the new name and number, it's going to be all properly hands.

Ryan told me I'm so asked to find himself, you know, that's that's what the off season is for.

But no, I thought tie.

I thought time made some unnecessarily difficult throws.

You know, I think when you look at that's kind of what I wrote about for this morning's morning article on Bama Central dot com was.

The idea that there's very little reward.

To what you're doing as a guy who is at the end of the day.

You know, if tie sims and doesn't set foot on that field yesterday, he's still a first round pick.

I still think, you know, he's going in the top half of the first round, like I've said.

Maybe I'm wrong on that, but I would be shocked to be his past 17.

Tie sims and stepped up there and made throws that put him at risk of changing that.

When you look at cubies, right?

And the razor thin margin for error and a guy that people are impressed by what he did.

But there are plenty of things to pick apart about him as a prospect.

And you go out there and you sail a couple of balls or you don't look in rhythm or they see.

I'm not really your footwork.

You put yourself in a position to someone could revise their steps on you.

Tie sims and went out there agreed decided to make those tough throws and didn't give the scouts anything to criticize while doing it.

I thought it was very, very fitting last performance for tie at the Alabama facility.

Oh, man, you're going to get me a little emotional thinking about that that he is now done performing in the in the Hank Kristin or facility.

I agree with you the big take that he will be going 16 or higher.

And it's how I'm happy to hear a good report on yesterday's day.

Obviously, I want to make it clear.

I'm joking about the ride Williams stuff.

I don't really care about a drop like that.

Maybe you do and we'll see how that progresses in the season.

But encouraging to hear a positive report from tie sims and seems like everybody kind of had positive days yesterday without seeing all the numbers bear out because we don't get the times.

We don't get the all the information that we might want from a Friday.

But good to hear ties, good performance.

I've got to get on out of here to go to the United Center.

Do you have anything else that you want to give to the people before we say goodbye for the day?

No, not much.

It's a pretty quiet day.

We'll be back here with a full breakdown of Michigan, right?

And I'm excited to hear what NATO does to me.

I said two coaches.

So you know about their story.

How they go back and all that.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It's going to be great to hear both of them.

It's just such a nice story.

I'm excited to hear what you guys get out of there.

Yeah.

I'm going to ask him how close Alabama was to getting Axel Lindembourg in the transfer portal.

Obviously that was a small thing right at the very beginning.

But then I think the money got away from Alabama pretty quickly.

And he chose Michigan.

And so I'm interested to hear like about the transfer portal.

So, you know, how that happened.

I'm interested to hear what he thinks about the Mario Burnett's growth.

Elliott to those growth.

And really try to get some details on how he might.

You can get it to it.

And all three forwards at one time.

So it's going to be a big day at the United Center.

You can follow at Katie Windham underscore at hundred a cyber.

And I sell at Joe Gator Six.

We will be getting over there just a few minutes and putting all that stuff on the BAM essential YouTube channel.

We appreciate everybody who subscribes to the BAM essential YouTube channel.

Or finds us on Apple podcast.

Amazon Spotify.

Once again, big thanks to Henry Sclare and to you, Theo, for handling the business yesterday.

We'll see you if, ever.

Everett, if Hunter wants to join us in the morning to break down this Michigan Wolverines

game, and we'll have a great Friday on the program tomorrow right here on the Joe Gather Show

on Bama Central and Essential.com. Thanks for joining us on today's edition of the Joe Gather Show

on Bama Central. Keep up with Joe on all his social media pages at Joe Gather Six.

Subscribe, rate, and review the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts and be sure to read us daily

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